The times they are a' changin'

[arachnaut]

When I was young I bought a 100-in-1 electronics kit from Lafayette
Radio Electronics. It was tube-based and had a high voltage supply on
the back of a breadboard. Some of the projects required you to re-wire
the power supply to get low voltages. The connectors were all little
springs. Wall outlet voltages were completely open and exposed in the
back of the panel.

I also bought Lionel chemistry sets. They had all sort of chemicals in
them.

Flashforward. Product safety laws have almost completely obsoleted such
things. Only low voltage experimenters kits and very few chemicals on
the chemistry sets - all with warning labels.

Without getting into the benefits of such trends, I'd like to compare to
software topics.

When mainframes were around and they were big and expensive it was
really bad when software crashed. Consider things like air traffic
controllers, telecomm systems, nuclear reactors, etc.

But nowadays, we have to accept EULA on our personal computer software
that completely abolish responsibility.

Somehow we have learned or been conditioned that crashes are just a way
of life in modern software.

[JoshuaKern]

My bandmate and I have a theory that this is just all towards the dumbing down of everyone, not just everything.  I recently have gotten into building some electronics and after looking at most of the kits out there, realized it was cheaper and more educational to merely rip apart things I already owned and modified them or repair them.  Radio Shack to me is a perfect example, they are basically a cell phone store for the most part now, as I watch the tools/components of invention slowly become replaced with cell phone holders and netbooks.  I feel as the software goes you are spot on.  The facilities exist to create more robust platforms/apps, but are viewed as secondary to product roll-out schedules.  Plus most of the general public has accepted the concept of crashes as being part of the tradeoff when it comes to computing.  I am currently using Ableton live 5.02 and FlStudio 7.0, to combat these issues of "look at this cool feature that will someday work flawlessly".  I will reiterate my first statement, it is the dumbing down of all things.  If it isn't broke don't fix it, I still use XP, and osx10.5, they work for me and are more stable.  To conclude, it seems we have, for the most part, been conditioned to allow the proliferation of shoddy products and the eternal "update to follow..." mentality to control the consumer landscape, sad times indeed.

[Jazzyspoon]

For the first point: the 'lawsuit' shaped the 20th century like the church did in the 11th.  It brought our society back a step, both on the human level and the scientific.  Sterilizing both.

For the second, you also have a lot more folks creating software at home and fewer larger companies are letting their new software mature before release (due to the increasing competition and unrealistic consumer expectations).   

[jopy]

I burned my ears out with u-he's ace after circuit bending it, does that count for danger and unpredictability in modern electro-software combinations?

[Jazzyspoon]

I burned my ears out with u-he's ace after circuit bending it, does that count for danger and unpredictability in modern electro-software combinations?

Is that a good review, I am curious how good this new soft machine is.  It looks good on paper.

[vespers]

fewer larger companies are letting their new software mature before release (due to the increasing competition and unrealistic consumer expectations).   

True indeed.

[jopy]

I burned my ears out with u-he's ace after circuit bending it, does that count for danger and unpredictability in modern electro-software combinations?

Is that a good review, I am curious how good this new soft machine is.  It looks good on paper.

It is a good review, although it's not quite as unpredictable as all that. For serious wire-twisting sound this might well be the end of my multi-year search though.

[Loopy C]

I will second jopy, it is got a sound that sets it apart and a set of features (especially the 'patch' cabling) that should allow some interesting experimental application. I have already successful done some 1950's 'Gordon Mumma meets Henri Pousseur at Karl S's house' things (complete with tape hiss and drop outs) that sound quite 'entertaining'.

It WILL bring your computer to it's knee's though, unless you have a relatively new and powerful machine...best to grab the demo for yourself in either case. And be sure to load in some '.tun' files, things really get 'academic' at that point